<
https://theconversation.com/ecology-of-fear-mike-davis-history-of-la-and-natural-disaster-is-re-read-whenever-fire-rages-in-california-247101>
"In this month’s massive Los Angeles fires, so far 24 people have died,
thousands of structures have been destroyed and approximately 16,308 hectares
have been burned. The fires are already among the most destructive in
California’s recorded history.
And as happens when major fires erupt in Los Angeles, radical (Marxist) urban
historian Mike Davis’s 1998 book
Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the
Imagination of Disaster is being shared. Specifically: its controversial third
chapter,
The Case for Letting Malibu Burn.
Its publication sparked intense backlash. Certain journalists, a former real
estate developer and a Malibu realtor masquerading as a neutral fact checker
led attacks on Davis’ claims and character. Some minor errors (corrected in
subsequent editions) were found in the book’s 831 footnotes.
But, as confirmed by Richard Walker (then chairman of the geography department
at the University of California, Berkeley), Davis’ essential arguments were
“completely accepted wisdom among scholars who work in the area of
environmental hazards”.
Davis, who died in 2022, painted a vivid, if pessimistic picture of Los Angeles
as both a real and imagined city perpetually on the brink of catastrophe. “No
other city seems to excite such dark rapture,” he wrote. Its obliteration “is
often depicted as, or at least secretly experienced as, a victory
for
civilisation”.
Indeed, in 2025, conservative commentators and influencers are taking a
perverse pleasure in the challenges facing California, viewing the state as
some sort of stand-in for elite or progressive values. Some right-wing media
and pundits have eagerly framed the wildfires as proof of liberal mismanagement
or flawed policy decisions."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
